Guillaume de L'Isle (1675-1726) was a cartographer and the Premier Geographer to the King in France beginning in 1718. His family played a significant part in the world of French cartography in the eighteenth century. At age 9, he drew his first map and at age 27 he became a member of the Académie Royale des Sciences. He studied under Jacques Cassini, acquiring knowledge in both mathematics and astronomy. Due to his academic background and his "critical approach to the maps of his predecessors" he became known as the first "scientific cartographer" (Moreland and Bannister, 132). Among his works are "Globe, map of the world and the four continents" (1700), "Atlas de Géographie" (1700-12), "Mississippi" (1701), "Carte du Mexique et de la Floride…" (c.a. 1703), "Carte de la Louisiane et du Mississippi" (1718) and posthumously, "Atlas Noveau" (1730 and later). Following his death, his widow, Marie Angélique de L'Isle took up the business with a partner, Philippe Buache (Tooley 395; Moreland and Bannister, 131-2).

This particular map was first published in De L'Isle's "Atlas de Geographie" in 1700. The map follows the geographic information known of this part of Africa current to the time period and became a landmark in the mapping of Africa. The map was frequently copied by other mapmakers throughout the eighteenth century (Betz, 495-7). Betz points out that the map leaves out two Ptolemaic source lakes for the Nile River and uses the correct longitude for the Mediterranean Sea, leading to the correct width for northern Africa. Betz notes the inclusion of detailed mapping for European settlements in west Africa, Abyssinia, the Congo, southeastern Africa on the Zambezi River and southern Africa (497). De L'Isle's sources for this map were based only on information that could be verified. He drew on the work of De Fer and Coronelli as well as information from French political expansion into Africa.

Source(s):

Betz, Richard L. "The Mapping of Africa: A Cartobibliography of Printed Maps of the African Continent to 1700." 't Goy Houten: Hes & de Graaf, 2007.